High volume call advertising system and method

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a method and system for providing third party advertisements with the use of a delayed call connection system, comprising an answering system configured to play an advertisement message after answering a call to a business; a plurality of advertisers&#39; messages stored in memory and accessible by said answering system, whereby at least one of the advertisers is not related to the business; and a communication system configured to connect the telephone caller to the business after the plurality of advertisers&#39; messages have been played.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/650,773, filed Feb. 7, 2005, which is incorporated inits entirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present application relates in general to telecommunications and, inparticular, to advertising over the telephone.

2. Description of the Related Art

The extensive worldwide telecommunications network permits individualsto instantly and inexpensively communicate with others around the world.By simply picking up a telephone and dialing a number, anyone canconnect to speak to another person on the other side of the world. Callsare generally connected via the traditional, wired telephone network,known as the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”).

Many companies provide telephone access for the public to reach staff,sales personnel, technical support, enter into contests, automatedaccount access systems, and so on through a call center. A privatebranch exchange (“PBX”) system may, for example, receive each call andimmediately distribute the call to the proper extension.

While some companies provide access to the services described above at asubscription fee, many companies provide access to the services at nocost. These companies may receive a high volume of calls due to a largeconsumer or client base. Consequently, they usually incur significantcosts in providing and maintaining the service.

Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to providea method and system for reducing or defraying the costs of providing andmaintaining such a service.

SUMMARY

The present system and method discloses third party advertising in thecontext of answering a high volume of calls. A caller first dials anumber associated with a business. In one embodiment, the caller isconnected to a call center responsible for the call advertisementsystem. The call advertisement system connects to the caller and plays athird party advertisement from memory. After playing at least one thirdparty advertisement for the caller, the caller is then forwarded to thebusiness he originally intended to call, and the business answers thecaller in a normal fashion, in the same way as if the call advertisementsystem was not involved.

In another embodiment, the call advertisement system is located at abusiness. A caller first calls the business' telephone number and isconnected to the call advertisement system located at the business. Thecall advertisement system plays a third party advertisement for thecaller from memory. After playing at least one third party advertisementfor the caller, the caller is then forwarded or otherwise connected tothe appropriate extension in a normal fashion.

In yet another embodiment, the call advertisement system is located at acall center but the caller is first connected to the business by callingthe business' telephone number. The business connects the call thenforwards or otherwise connects the call to the call center. The calladvertisement system located at the call center connects to the callerand plays a third party advertisement from memory. After playing atleast one third party advertisement for the caller, the caller is thenforwarded or otherwise connected back to the business, and the businessanswers the caller in a normal fashion.

Third party advertisements are stored in any memory storage method orformat, such as an electronic database. Third party advertisers mayconnect to the advertisement memory storage in order to populate thememory with advertisements to be used with the call advertisementsystem. Third party advertisers may select available businesses toadvertise with as well as gain other information on available marketsthrough the call advertisement system. Furthermore, businesses may alsoengage the call advertisement system to offer the use of their callvolume to play third party advertisements. Both third party advertisersand businesses are advantageously benefited by the call advertisementsystem; the creation of a new product placement opportunity allows thirdparty advertisers additional promotion opportunities and give businessesincome from helping create those opportunities.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features will now be described with reference to thedrawings summarized below. These drawings and the associated descriptionare provided to illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention, andnot to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a call center embodiment of the invention which usesthe PSTN.

FIG. 2 illustrates a business center embodiment of the invention whichuses the PSTN.

FIG. 3 illustrates a web server embodiment of the invention which usesthe Internet instead of the PSTN.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow chart for an embodiment of the calladvertisement system where a call is answered by the business but notforwarded to the call center, or where the call center answers a callfrom a caller and then forwards the call to the business.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example flow chart for an embodiment of the calladvertisement system where the caller first calls the business, is thenforwarded by the business to the call center, and then the call centerultimately forwards the caller back to the business.

FIG. 6 illustrates a sample flow chart of what a typical caller to thecall advertisement system would experience.

FIG. 7 illustrates a sample flow chart of how a business would use thecall advertisement system.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow chart of how a third party advertiserwould use the call advertisement system.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a revenue projection using a mediacompany which owns several radio stations across different markets as anexample business and showing how the markets may be advantageouslysegmented and current reports generated.

DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of a system and method for high volume calladvertising are described herein. A call advertisement system isfeatured which plays third party advertisements for a caller to abusiness and then connects the caller to that business.

Advertisements for use with the system can originate from and relate toany business. Third party advertisements refer to advertisements by abusiness that is not the same business called. For example, if a callerintends to call a ticket broker and hears an advertisement for arecording company, then the advertisement from the recording companywould be a third party advertisement since it is not an advertisementfor the radio station being called.

Additionally, advertisements for use with the call advertisement systemcan take many forms. An advertisement may be recorded audio content tobe played over an audio only connection. An advertisement may alsoinclude image, text, video or other data content to be playedexclusively or in addition to the audio content of a call. For example,a user who has called a hotel using a display-enabled phone who is firstconnected to the call advertisement system may first receive audio, textand video content for a restaurant local to that hotel before beingconnected to that hotel, such as the restaurant's audio jingle, theaddress and business hours to be displayed on the phone display, and apicture of the restaurant, also shown on the phone display. Although therest of the embodiments discussed herein refer to audio contentadvertisements only, the use of image, video and other data content isalso contemplated for use by embodiments of the call advertisementsystem.

The call advertisement system as described in the call center embodimentmay be advantageously configured to handle ten or more calls at aboutthe same time. This means that ten or more callers may be receiving anadvertisement at the same time. If the same advertisement is beingdelivered to a group of callers, some callers may hear the advertisementat exactly the same time and others may be hearing different parts ofthe same advertisement; the time shifting is due to the difference inwhen the call is received. In other embodiments, the call center calladvertisement system may be configured to handle one hundred or morecalls at about the same time. In yet further embodiments, the callcenter call advertisement system may be configured to handle onethousand or more calls at about the same time. In even furtherembodiments, the call center call advertisement system may be configuredto handle ten thousand or more calls at about the same time. In an evenfurther call advertisement system embodiment, the system may beconfigured to handle forty thousand or more calls at about the sametime. In each of the embodiments mentioned, the callers may have calledin at slightly different times, such as a fraction of a second or a fewseconds apart. In certain embodiments, the system keeps track of theorder of calls, such as by using a time stamp, and may serve anappropriate advertisement individually to each caller.

Although the call advertisement system may be configured for use withhigh call volume, a feature of the call advertisement system asdiscussed herein is that the system allows for multiple businesses thathave low call volume to benefit from a service targeted to high callvolume businesses by allowing multiple low call volume businesses toadvertise on behalf of the call advertising system. For example, in thecall center embodiment discussed below and illustrated in FIG. 1,multiple low call volume businesses can choose to have their callsforwarded to the call center which is capable of handling a high volumeof calls. While at the call center, the callers will hear a third partyadvertisement before being forwarded to the actual telephone number forthe appropriate low call volume business. Consequently, by combiningtheir low call volumes, the multiple businesses are able to create ahigh call volume for use with the call advertisement system. This willpermit a group of businesses to collect enough callers such thatrelatively large advertisers would be interested in placingadvertisements with them due to the significant and unique advertisementdemographic as well as the exposure offered by this group of businesses.

Callers may advantageously be enticed to call in to the calladvertisement system by the offering of incentives. For example, thesystem might keep track of the order of each caller and award a prize tothe caller that matches a random number in the order of callers, or theprize could be given to a numbered caller the system chooses to select,such as the one hundred and fiftieth caller of the day. The system couldalso be used to play a telephone game. For example, after theadvertisement is played the caller may be asked to use his or her phoneto answer a question, and if answered correctly the caller would beentered into a drawing for a prize. The system could also be used as away to enter a lottery by charging the telephone bill or an otherwiseknown bills system at the end of the advertisement, and using the phonebuttons to enter and selecting how many tickets to purchase. Thepurchase may be made and recorded electronically.

Another feature of the call advertisement system is that it can providea source of revenue for otherwise “free” services. Third partyadvertisers who choose to advertise with the call advertisement systemwill usually pay a fee in order to have their advertisements played.Businesses who play the advertisements may receive a portion of that feeas revenue. That revenue may be used to offset the cost of operating thebusiness. For example, a computer networking business may choose toprovide a free technical support line to customers who have purchasednetworking products made by that business. In order to provide the freetechnical support line, the business incurs costs which may include thecost of running the technical support call center and salaries to thetechnical support staff According to the prior art, the company wouldusually connect a caller to the first available technical supportrepresentative. With the call advertisement system, however, thecomputer networking business can first have a third party advertisementplayed to the caller when the caller makes a call to the technicalsupport line, and then connect the caller to a technical supportrepresentative. The business may receive revenue for each time theadvertisement is played. With the revenue received, the computernetworking business can offset the cost of providing the technicalsupport telephone service.

Yet another feature of the call advertising system is that it allowsthird party advertisers to select which market they would like toadvertise to. When a third party advertiser selects an advertisement tobe used with the system, the advertiser may be given a list ofbusinesses where his advertisement may be played. Additionally, he maysee profiles of callers who typically call those businesses, asdiscussed below. Consequently, he can select his target audienceaccordingly. For example, two available businesses advertising for thecall advertising system may be a pizza delivery business and a hairsalon. A third party advertiser for a national football game may chooseto have his advertisement for that game played when a caller calls thepizza delivery business instead of the salon since he expects morecallers to a pizza delivery business would be interested in football.

Third party advertisers may advantageously download their advertisementsin memory local to the caller for use with the call advertisementsystem. Advertisements may be stored in memory in many forms, includingbut not limited to, databases, such as a computer database; electronicmemory, such as a hard disk drive or flash memory drive; tapes, such asaudio cassette tapes or computer data storage tapes; disks, such asfloppy disks, compact discs, digital video discs, or blu-ray discs; andpaper. Although the memory storage method used hereinafter is referredto as an advertisement database, any other method could be used to storethe advertisements, as discussed above. Alternatively, the third partyadvertiser could serve the advertisement itself directly to each callerby making the advertisement available to the call advertisement systemover a website. Thus, when the call advertisement system has a need forthe advertisement, the link to the advertisement provided by theadvertiser is accessed and the advertisement is supplied by thedesignated web server.

Another feature of the call advertisement system allows for theadvertisement database to collect information on what telephone numbershave called in and the subscriber information, where available. Thisinformation may be used in many different ways. The call advertisementsystem may advantageously create a profile of a caller who has calledseveral different businesses associated with the call advertisementsystem or has otherwise provided caller profile data. Caller profiledata may include the caller's telephone number, which may identify thegeographic location of the caller, the caller's name, if registered witha caller identification service, the time and day of the call, theduration of the call, and so on. For example, if the call advertisementhas received three calls from a caller in the 310 area code at 11:23 pm,1:15 am, and 3:00 am to a steakhouse, young men's clothing store, and acountry music station, then the call advertisement system may create aprofile of the caller that the caller is a young male from Los Angeleswho is usually awake at night, listens to country music and likes steak.Caller profiles may benefit third party advertisers who may attempt totarget callers based on the businesses available and associated with thecall advertisement system, as discussed above. Caller profiles may bestored in the third party advertisement database or in a separatedatabase for use with the caller advertisement system.

A call may be placed to the system by any methods known or contemplatedin the art. In certain embodiments, the call may be placed using astandard telephone handset that connects to a telephone network,including a traditional fixed phone “landline”, which uses dedicatedphysical wire connections connected to a single location; wireless andradio telephones, which use either analog or digital radio signals;satellite telephones, which utilize telecommunication satellites; andvoice over IP (“VoIP”) telephones, which use broadband internetconnections. Between end users, the connection may be carried by anumber of methods, including fiber optic cable, point to point microwaveor satellite relay. The connection may be carried via the PSTN. A sampleembodiment of the system using the PSTN is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 anddiscussed further below. In yet further embodiments, a call may beplaced to the system without the use of the PSTN, such as by an audioconnection through a computer connected to the Internet. For example, acaller browsing a web site may be given the option to speak with arepresentative of a business by clicking on a link, and by clicking onthe link the caller is connected to the call advertising system. Asample embodiment of the system that uses the Internet in place of thePSTN is shown in FIG. 3 and discussed further below.

The system may also be contacted by methods known or contemplated in theart. In certain embodiments, a call may locate the system using atelephone number. In other embodiments, the system may be located by acall through the use of an internet protocol (“IP”) address, URL, domainname or e-mail address.

Certain embodiments of the system and method may be implemented in acommunications system as illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 3. FIG. 1illustrates a call center embodiment of the invention which uses thePSTN 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example configuration of ahigh volume call center, any high volume call center known in the artmay be used with the call advertisement system. As illustrated in FIG.1, a caller 100 may place a call to the call advertising system 140located at a call center 160 using the PSTN 110. The caller 100 may usethe PSTN 110 to call a business 120, which is also connected to the PSTN110. In certain embodiments of the system, a caller 100 intending tocall a business 120 is first connected to the call advertisement system140 at the call center 130, while in other embodiments the caller isfirst connected to the business 120. Although the call center is shownseparate from the PSTN, in one embodiment it may be incorporated as partof the PSTN system in a telephone switching center of the PSTN.

The call advertisement system 140 according to this embodiment islocated at a call center 160 capable of handling a high volume of calls.Other embodiments of the call advertisement system are configured toaccept a lower volume of calls and may be located at the business, asshown in the sample embodiment according to FIG. 2. Although with asufficient investment it is understood that the business couldincorporate a very high call volume system as well. Returning to FIG. 1,the call advertisement system 140 comprises a central telephoneswitching system (“switch”) 141 connected to the PSTN. The switch 141 iscapable of accepting and directing a high volume of calls. The switch141 is connected to at least one answering terminal 143. The answeringterminal 143 may be an answering system or may be connected to aplurality of answering systems. Many different answering systems may beconnected to the answering terminals to be used to answer a call and toplay a third party advertisement from the advertisements database. Forexample, answering machines or computers connected to the answeringterminals may be used by the call advertising system. In the sampleembodiment shown, the answering terminal 143 is a computer with aprocessor and software capable of answering a call from the caller 100and playing a third party advertisement to that caller. Also connectedto the answering terminal 143 is a database of third partyadvertisements 142.

Any system or method known to the prior art may be used to create amemory storage for the advertisements. In the sample embodiment shown inFIG. 1, the memory storage for the third party advertisements takes theform of an electronic database, shown as the advertisements database142. The advertisement database 142 may transfer the advertisements viaa data connection to the answering terminal 143 to be played for acaller 100.

Third party advertisers connect to the advertisement database 142 at thecall center 160 using the Internet 112. A third party advertiser 130 mayuse this connection to populate the advertisement database 142 withadvertisements or to update advertisements already in the database. Inother embodiments, a third party advertiser 130 may connect to theadvertisements database 142 using the PSTN 110, for example, by using amodem to call and connect to a modem at the call center 130, where themodem is connected to the advertisement database 142 (not shown). In yetfurther embodiments, a third party advertiser 130 may mail third partyadvertisements to the call advertising system which are then collectedand stored in the advertisements database. In an embodiment where thethird party advertisements are mailed to the call advertisement systemin a written format, then text-to-speech (“TTS”) software may be used bythe call advertisement system to play the advertisements to the caller.Alternatively, a representative of the call advertisement system mayrecord the audio advertisement based on the written advertisement sentin.

The advertisement database 142 is connected to the Internet 112 andallows for third party advertisers 130 to upload advertisements to theadvertisements database 142 or update advertisements already in theadvertisements database 142. The advertisement database 142 can alsokeep track of the number of times an advertisement has been played.Another feature of the advertisement database 142 is that it can allowthe third party advertiser 130 to choose which business 120 for whichthe advertiser would like to have his advertisement played for itscallers as well as set other options for the running of hisadvertisement, such as when during the day it is played, for how long itis played, how many times it should be played, and so on. For example,the advertisement database 142 may display a list of all businessesadvertising on behalf of the call advertisement system 140 and allow thethird party advertiser 130 to select (via an internet website, forexample) the callers to which business or businesses for which theadvertiser wants to play the advertisement. The advertisement database142 may also list certain time slots that that advertisement could beplayed, such as from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, or 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, andso on. Additionally, the third party advertiser 130 may be able to set alimit on the number of times the advertisement is played, such as whenthe advertiser 130 has a limited budget to spend on the advertisementand the embodiment of the call advertisement system 140 charges based onthe number of times played.

Yet another feature of the advertisement database 142 is that it caninform the third party advertiser 130 via the Internet 112 as to theamount of money due for having the call advertisement system 140 playthe third party advertiser's advertisement and automatically have theamount deducted from its account.

After the call advertisement system 140 at the call center 160 completesplaying the third party advertisement to the caller 100, the calladvertisement system 140 advantageously forwards the caller 100 throughthe PSTN to the business 120 the caller originally dialed. According tothe embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the call is ultimately directed to abusiness representative 102 located at the business 120. As shown inFIG. 1, in certain embodiments the telephone number advertised by thebusiness would be the one answered by the call center and a differenttelephone number could be used by the call center for forwarding thecall to the business.

FIG. 2 illustrates a business center embodiment of the invention whichuses the PSTN. In the sample configuration shown in FIG. 2, the calladvertisement system 140 is located at the business 120, and not a callcenter 130, as shown in FIG. 1. The caller 100 makes a call to thebusiness 120 through the PSTN 110. The call advertisement system 140,also connected to the PSTN 110, but located at the business 120, picksup the call using the switch 141 and directs the call to the answeringterminal 140. The answering terminal, which in this embodiment is acomputer with a processor, answering software, and a telephonecommunications interface, plays a third party advertisement to thecaller 100 from the advertisement database 142. The answering terminalmay be responsible for engaging the signal from the PSTN and from theswitch such that an appropriately formatted advertisement, such as anaudio advertisement, may be played from the caller who has calledthrough the PSTN. For example, the signal from the PSTN and the signalsent from the answering terminal may include audio, text, video, orother data.

The advertisement database 142 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is anelectronic database. The advertisement database 142 is connected to theanswering terminal 140 of the call advertisement system 140 at thebusiness 120 through the Internet 112. In other embodiments, theadvertisement database could connect to the answering terminal 140 viathe PSTN 110, for example, by using a modem connected to theadvertisement database 142 to call and connect to a modem at theanswering terminal 143 (not shown). In yet further embodiments,advertisements from the advertisement database 142 could be mailed tothe business 120 to be used in conjunction with the caller advertisementsystem 140 located at the business 120.

The advertisement database 142 according to FIG. 2 differs from theadvertisement database 142 according to FIG. 1 only in that theadvertisement database is connected to the caller advertisement systemthrough the Internet 112 instead of the through a local connection. Thisfeature allows a plurality of caller advertisement systems to be locatedat businesses remote to the advertisement database but still have accessto the advertisement database, such as the business 120 featured in FIG.2. The database includes all of the other features discussed above withrespect to FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a web server 144 embodiment of the invention whichuses the Internet 112 instead of the PSTN. A caller 100 is connected tothe Internet 112 using devices with internet capability, such as acomputer, a VoIP phone, a cellular telephone or a personal digitalassistant (“PDA”). The caller connects to the web server using any formof Internet addressing known in the prior art, such as a uniformresource locator (“URL”), internet protocol (“IP”) address, instantmessaging, or e-mail address, as well as software designed for use withthe Internet 112, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Forexample, a caller 100 browsing a web-page associated with a business 120may choose to click on a link displayed on that web-page that begins acall by creating an audio connection over the Internet 112. The callfirst connects the caller 100 to caller advertisement system 140 webserver 144. After the caller advertisement system 140 plays a thirdparty advertisement to the caller 100 using the appropriate interface,the caller 100 is then connected to the web server 121 located at thebusiness 120 via the Internet 112 since the business is connected to theInternet. Upon connecting to the business web server 121, the caller maybe connected to a business representative 102 using well known VoIPtechnology.

The caller advertisement system 140 illustrated in the sample embodimentof FIG. 3 comprises a web server 144 which contains an advertisementdatabase 142. The web server 144 is connected to the Internet and hostsappropriate software capable of connecting and answering a plurality ofcalls from callers through the Internet. The web server 144 shown alsocontains an advertisement database 142 which stores advertisements fromthird party advertisers. In other embodiments, the advertisementdatabase 142 may be separate from the web server 144 and connected to itthrough appropriate data transferring means.

Similar to the system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a third party advertiser130 may connect to the caller advertisement system 140 web server 144via the Internet 112 as shown in FIG. 3. The advertisements database 142is populated with advertisements from third party advertisers 130. Athird party advertiser 130 may use the Internet 112 connection topopulate the advertisement database 142 or to update the advertisementdatabase 142.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow chart for an embodiment of the calladvertisement system where a call is answered by the business but notforwarded to the call center, or where the call center answers a callfrom a caller and then forwards the call to the business. The calladvertising system associated with a business telephone number firstreceives a call from a caller 401 who has called that business telephonenumber. If the call advertisement system is located at a call center andnot the business, then the business telephone number may have been anadvertised telephone number for a business but actually is a number tothe call center. The caller may thus not be aware that the telephonenumber he has dialed may have connected him to the call center and notthe business. After the call advertisement system receives the call 401,it proceeds to answer the call from the caller 402. When the call isanswered, the call advertisement system plays one or more third partyadvertisements to the caller 403. The third party advertisements may beretrieved from the advertisements database, as discussed above withreference to FIGS. 1-3. The next step is enclosed in a dotted line boxbecause the system may be configured to complete the step as a matter ofpreference or as an option. Other preferential steps are also enclosedin a dotted line box in this Figure as well as FIG. 5. Returning to step404, the call advertisement system may optionally increment a record ofthe number of times the third party advertisement that was played to thecaller has been played overall. The system may also record what thecaller's telephone number was, as well as any other informationavailable on the advertisement playing event. These features wouldprovide an enhanced ability to report to the third party advertiserinformation regarding how many times and to which callers theadvertisement was played as well as help augment a caller profile.

After the call advertisement system completes playing the third partyadvertisement to the caller, the call advertisement system then forwardsthe caller to the appropriate business the caller was attempting tocontact 405. If the call advertisement system is located at a callcenter, then the call advertisement system would determine the businessto forward the caller to based on the business telephone number thecaller originally dialed. For example, a call center may be reached byten different telephone numbers, and each telephone number may beassociated with a separate business, for a total of ten businesses. Thecall advertisement system would then forward the call to the appropriatebusiness because the caller dialed a telephone number associated withthat business to reach the call center. If the call advertisement systemis located at the business, then the call advertisement system mayforward the call to the telephone answering system that would haveanswered the call had the call advertisement system never answered thecall. In step 406, the business may answer the call in a similar way tohow it would have answered the call had the call advertisement systemnever answered the call. Alternatively, the caller may receive a busysignal if all lines to the business are busy. Next, the system mayoptionally be configured to send billing information to the third partyadvertiser for the advertisement that was played 407. This may be doneevery time an advertisement is played, after a certain number of timesan advertisement is played, after a certain amount of time, or in anyother configurable way. Furthermore, in step 408, if the advertisementdatabase has access to the third party advertiser's advertisementdatabase, then it may optionally update its database to reflect thelatest advertisements of the third party advertiser. Access to the thirdparty advertisement database may be provided in a number of ways, suchas by proving an IP address to the call advertisement system orotherwise providing network access to the third party advertisementdatabase.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example flow chart for an embodiment of the calladvertisement system where the caller first calls the business, is thenforwarded by the business to the call center, and then the call centerultimately forwards the caller back to the business. The caller firstcalls a telephone number associated with a business 501. The businessconnects the call to the call center 502, where the call advertisementsystem is located. The call advertisement system then answers the call503. Upon answering the call, the call advertisement system plays atleast one third party advertisement to the caller 504. The advertisementplayed by the call advertisement may be of any length, including a tensecond advertisement, a fifteen second advertisement, a thirty secondadvertisement, and so on. A brief ten second advertisement is suggestedso as to maintain the caller's attention. In step 505, the calladvertisement system may be configured to increment a record of thenumber of times the third party advertisement that was played to thecaller has been played overall, as well as have any of the otherfeatures discussed above. After the call advertisement system completesplaying the third party advertisement to the caller, the calladvertisement system located at the call center then returns the callerto the business that originally forwarded the call to the call center506. The business receives the call in step 507 and answers the call ina method similar to the way it would have answered the call had the calladvertisement system never been involved. Alternatively, the caller mayreceive a busy signal if all lines to the business are busy. In steps508 and 509, the system may be configured to send billing information tothe third party advertiser for the advertisement played as well asupdate the advertisement database with new advertisements that areavailable, as discussed above with reference to steps 407 and 408 inFIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates a sample flow chart of what a typical caller to thecall advertisement system would experience. A caller who is routedthrough the call advertisement system will typically not know if thecall advertisement system playing her call is located at a call center;consequently, she should experience a similar process in most of theembodiments of the system and method described herein. A caller firstpicks up her idle telephone 601 to call a telephone number 602associated with a business she intends to reach. After she completesdialing the telephone number 603, she is eventually connected to thecall advertisement system 604, which then plays a third partyadvertisement for her 605. In certain embodiments, she may hear amessage from the business she intends to call before hearing the thirdparty advertisement. The message from the business may be played fromeither the call advertisement system or by the business itself. Afterlistening to at least one third party advertisement, the caller is thenforwarded to the business she originally intended to reach 606, forexample, by an extension. The business then proceeds to answer the callfrom the caller in a normal way 607. After the caller finishes talkingto the business, the call is disconnected 608 and the caller's phonereturns to idle 609.

FIG. 7 illustrates a sample flow chart of how a business would use thecall advertisement system. The business used in the sample flow chart isa media station. A media station host would first broadcast notice forcallers to call into the media station 701, such as a call-in contest. Ahigh volume of calls would then proceed to be made to the telephonenumber broadcast by the media station in its notice 702. The callerswould then be routed to the call advertisement system 703. The calladvertisement system answers the calls from the callers and plays atleast one third party advertisement to each caller 704. The calladvertisement system then forwards each caller to the media station 705,where the call is answered in the normal fashion of the media station,or where the caller receives a busy signal.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process of how a third party advertiserwould use the call advertisement system to benefit the advertisedproduct. For example, if a third party advertiser, a recording company,has just released a rock music album it may like to use the features ofthe call advertisement system to increase its sales. Consequently, therecording company would choose to use the call advertisement systemdescribed herein. According to the sample configuration shown in FIG. 1and the sample flow chart of FIG. 8, in step 801 the recording companywould first use the Internet 112 to log on to the advertisement database142 which may advantageously be accessed through a web server. Afterconnecting to the advertisement database 142, the recording company mayselect among businesses that are currently advertising on behalf of thecall advertisement system to play the recording company's advertisementfor the rock music album. For example, a radio music station that playsrock music may be one of the businesses available to playadvertisements. The recording company may then select the rock musicradio station to play the rock music album advertisement. The recordingcompany may further choose what time the advertisement is played, howmany times it is played, for how long it is played, if it is played inaddition to other advertisements, or other similar features configurablein the call advertisement system. In an alternative embodiment, theadvertiser may be presented with a list of call-in promotional contestsa media station is running over the next few weeks and the advertisermay be permitted to select which of the call-in promotions it wants toplay its advertisements. The media station could be for example a radiostation, a web broadcast, or satellite radio. The third party advertiserthen makes his advertisement available to the advertisement databaseassociated with the call advertisement system by any of the methodsknown or discussed above 803, such as by uploading an audio file of theadvertisement to the call advertisement system. The rock music radiostation then plays the rock music album advertisement every time a callto the station is answered, such as during a high volume call-in contestas discussed above and shown in FIG. 7. In certain embodiments, thebusiness, here the rock music radio station, may inform the caller thatit has connected to the business before the third party advertisement isplayed. The third party advertiser is later sent a summary of theservices provided by the call advertisement system 805 as discussedabove, such as the number of times the advertisement was played or whothe advertisement was played to. The summary may include a bill for thecost of providing the service, and may be charged in any format, such asa flat rate fee before the advertisement service begins playing such asa prepaid card like a calling card, a flat rate fee after theadvertisement service begins playing, a charge by the number of timesthe advertisement was played, or a charge based on the length of thetime slot the advertisement was scheduled to play in.

An example use of the system to create revenue for the call advertisingsystem, to increase the audience of a third party advertisement, and tocreate funds for the businesses that play the third party advertisement,is now discussed. First, many businesses are constantly seekingopportunities to offset the costs of services they offer by finding anew source of income. For example, most radio stations are fundedthrough the sale of airtime on the station to advertisers. Consequently,a radio station may further seek funding by finding a new opportunity toprovide advertising space to advertisers. It is likely then that a radiostation may advantageously use the call advertisement system in order tosupplement its revenue. Upon contacting the call advertisement system,the radio station would register to be a carrier of the calladvertisement system's third party advertisements. The radio stationwould then arrange for the caller advertisement system to first answercalls made to the radio station's telephone number before the call isultimately forwarded to the radio station, usually on an unpublishednumber. Additional examples of businesses that may seek out the calladvertisement system are a reality television show that uses a viewingaudience as an essential tool, such as a reality vocalist competitiontelevision show using caller voting, or a customer service telephonenumber, such as a computer technical support line.

While businesses seek to provide advertising space for the calladvertisement system, third party advertisers, such as a movie studio,may seek to use that advertising space to place an advertisement, suchas an advertisement for a new movie released by that movie studio. Thestudio will seek to promote the movie in order to increase attendance.Consequently, it will search for appropriate product placement for theadvertisement as is advantageously done to increase sales. The studiomay thus engage the call advertisement system as discussed hereinbecause it provides an appropriate opportunity for product placement.The movie studio must first log on to the call advertisement systemwhich in this example is available over the Internet. After accessingthe call advertisement system, the movie studio can see which businesseshave agreed to play third party advertisements on behalf of the calladvertisement system. According to this example, the movie studio willfind that a rock music radio station, a country western radio station, areality vocalist competition television show using caller voting, and acomputer technical support line are all available through the calladvertisement system to play the movie studio's advertisement. The moviestudio may advantageously select to play the new movie advertisement oncalls to the rock music radio station and reality vocalist competitiontelevision show since the advertiser believes the callers to those twobusinesses would have the most interest in the movie. In certainembodiments, the caller advertisement system may provide a profile ofcallers to each business so as to better inform the third partyadvertiser as to which market each business has an appeal. The moviestudio may further choose to be billed based on the number of times theadvertisement is played on a certain day. The movie studio may thenupload its advertisement to the call advertisement system'sadvertisement database, which will make the advertisement accessible tobe played to each caller to the call advertisement system.

On the day selected by the movie studio to play the new movieadvertisement, both the rock music radio station and reality vocalistcompetition television show may choose to hold a call-in contest. Therock music radio station may, for example, choose to reward the10,000^(th) caller of the day with a vacation, and the reality vocalistcompetition television show may choose to crown a new top singer basedon the number of votes current competing vocalists receive throughcall-in votes that day. The rock music radio station may publish thecontest information by having a radio host announce the contest duringbroadcasting. If 15,000 people call into the rock music radio stationand 24 million people call into the reality television show on that day,and all calls successfully went through the call advertisement systemsuch that each caller heard the movie studio's advertisement and wasthen forwarded to either the rock music radio station or realitytelevision show, then the advertisement was played to a caller24,015,000 times that day. Furthermore, if the call advertisement systemcharged $0.10 each time the advertisement was played, then the calladvertisement system created a revenue of $2,401,500 (24,015,000 *0.10)for that day. If the businesses involved were given 10% of the revenuethey generated, then the rock music radio station received $150 in fundsand the reality television show received $240,000 in funds, leaving thecall advertisement system with $2,161,350 in revenue.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a revenue projection using a mediacompany which owns several radio stations across different markets as anexample business and showing how the markets may be advantageouslysegmented. One form of segmentation may be by the number of listenerswithin a certain geographical area. Another form of segmentation couldbe by the type of programming offered by the radio stations. The examplerevenue projection figure may be used for a media station or mediacompany that uses the call advertisement system to prepare a report onrevenue gained from playing third party advertisements. The samplefigure uses an example where the business has charged a flat rate weeklyfee to third party advertisers to play their advertisements. Under aflat rate weekly fee, a third party advertiser can play one or severalselected advertisements for every caller to the call advertisementsystem for a period of a week. A limit may also be set for the number oftimes advertisements may be played for the third party advertiser.Alternatively, selected time in a flat rate weekly fee may be dividedbetween several advertisers, so, for example, thirty percent of the weekmay be devoted to advertisements from one advertiser and seventy percentof the week may be devoted to advertisers from a second advertiser. Thefirst advertiser may pay thirty percent of the weekly rate and thesecond advertiser may pay seventy percent of the weekly rate. Returningto sample FIG. 9, if the media company charges a low end weekly rate toplay third party advertisements in its top ten markets, such as twohundred and fifty dollars 901, and the media company has sixty sixstations in those top ten markets, then the media company may generate$858,000 in revenue 902. Alternatively, if the media company charges ahigh end weekly rate, such as one thousand dollars 903, then it may make$3,432,000 in revenue 904. According to the example, if the mediacompany charges a low end weekly rate to play third party advertisementsin all of its markets, then it may make $4,011,800 in revenue 905 in oneyear, and $20,059,000 in revenue for five years 906 by playing the thirdparty advertisements according to the call advertisement system.

The sample revenue projection report could be readily adapted for use incombination with computer software and the data collected by theadvertisement database (such as how many times an advertisement wasplayed, when it was played, and so on) to provide instant feedback. Forexample, the system may create alternative reports, such as dailyreports or weekly reports. Additionally, using the data collected by theadvertisement database, the media company could determine which of itshosts generated the most revenue for the system by examining data on thenumber of calls to the system during certain time periods, andcorrelating that data to the hosts that were on during that time. As aresult, media hosts who generate more revenue could be noted.

The features disclosed herein may be advantageously used in the contextof supplying advertisements to callers without the use of delay callforwarding.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that theabove-described system may be straightforwardly adapted or extended invarious ways. While the foregoing description makes reference toparticular embodiments, the scope of the invention is defined solely bythe claims that follow and the elements recited therein.

1. A system to provide advertising to a high volume of calls received atabout the same time, the system comprising: a broadcast system capableof reaching a large number of individuals at about the same time; apromotional effort communicated by a broadcast notice by the broadcastsystem, which creates a high volume of calls to the broadcast system,wherein the promotional effort comprises an incentive to place calls assuggested by the notice from the broadcast system; an answering systemconfigured to play an advertisement message after answering the callsplaced to the broadcast system; a plurality of advertisers' messagesstored in memory and accessible by said answering system, whereby atleast one of the advertisers is not related to the broadcast system; anda communication system configured to connect the individual to thebroadcast system after at least one of the plurality of advertisers'messages has been played.
 2. The system according to claim 1, where thehigh volume of calls is at least ten calls.
 3. The system according toclaim 1, where the high volume of calls is at least one hundred calls.4. The system according to claim 1, where the high volume of calls is atleast one thousand calls.
 5. The system according to claim 1, where thehigh volume of calls is at least ten thousand calls.
 6. A method for acommunication answering system to handle response to a media broadcastincentive comprising: receiving notice that an incentive broadcast hasbeen made to an audience of a media broadcast source; receiving acommunication responsive to the incentive broadcast from members of theaudience and storing information about the order in which eachcommunication responsive to the incentive broadcast was received;providing at least one selected advertisement in its entirety to each ofthe members of the audience from whom communications have been received,wherein the nature of the selected advertisement is not related to themedia broadcast source; and providing the incentive to at least one ofthe members of the audience from whom communications has been received.7. The method of claim 6, wherein the media broadcast is a radiobroadcast.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the communication comprisesat least one of a call associated with an interne protocol address, aURL, a domain name and an e-mail address.
 9. The method of claim 6,wherein the incentive comprises a prize to the audience member whosecommunication order matches a random number.
 10. The method of claim 6,wherein the incentive comprises a telephone game.
 11. The method ofclaim 6, wherein the incentive comprises entry into a lottery.
 12. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the communication originates from at leastone of a computer, a VoIP phone, a cellular telephone or a personaldigital assistant (“PDA”).
 13. The method of claim 6, wherein theadvertisement comprises at least one of image, text, video and audio.14. The method of claim 6, further comprising accepting an input from atleast one of the members of the audience from whom communications havebeen received after at least one advertisement has been provided. 15.The method of claim 6, wherein providing a selected advertisementcomprises selecting an advertisement based at least in part oninformation associated with the audience member, wherein the informationis derived from the member's communication.
 16. A delayed-communicationconnection system comprising: a media broadcast source configured tobroadcast an incentive to an audience; an answering system configured toreceive at least one communication responsive to the incentive broadcastfrom at least one member of the audience and to store information aboutthe time at which each communication responsive to the incentive wasreceived; a memory storing a plurality of advertiser's messages andaccessible by the answering system, whereby at least one of theadvertisers is not related to the media broadcast source; acommunication system configured to connect at least one of thecommunications received by the answering system to the media sourceafter at least one selected advertisement has been played in itsentirety to the at least one member of the audience from whom acommunication has been received; an incentive fulfillment moduleassociated with the media broadcast source configured to provide anincentive to at least one of the members of the audience from whomcommunications has been received
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein themedia broadcast source is a radio broadcast.
 18. The system of claim 16,wherein the communication comprises at least one of a call associatedwith an internet protocol address, a URL, a domain name and an e-mailaddress.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein the incentive comprises aprize to the audience member whose communication time matches a randomnumber.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein the incentive comprises atelephone game.
 21. The system of claim 16, wherein the incentivecomprises entry into a lottery.
 22. The system of claim 16, wherein thecommunication originates from at least one of a computer, a VoIP phone,a cellular telephone or a personal digital assistant (“PDA”).
 23. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the advertisement comprises at least one ofimage, text, video and audio.
 24. The system of claim 16, wherein aselected advertisement comprises an advertisement selected based atleast in part on information associated with the audience member,wherein the information is derived from the member's communication.